Q&A with Michael Beard, OG SNK Voice Actor

[Mr. Karate II]

Holy hell. No, I'm not sending all that to Mr. Beard. Absolutely not.

I've been dealing with a work emergency for the past couple weeks and haven't had time to check this thread. Good lord...

The captain of this boat is you Fygee: the mine was just a personal proposal, which I decided to make public only after asking your permission through our private messages, however, if you are not satisfied with my final result, you are completely free to modify it, shorten it or even delete it altogether.

My excuse for be able to propose to him all these questions would have been tell him that since the forum you are a part of is made up of more than 25 thousand members, you got more questions than you expected and that he don't really need to answer all the requests, but only the ones he thought were really necessary, but this content is yours alone: so behave as you see fit.

 

[famicommander]

The captain of this boat is you Fygee: the mine was just a personal proposal, which I decided to make public only after asking your permission through our private messages, however, if you are not satisfied with my final result, you are completely free to modify it, shorten it or even delete it altogether.

My excuse for be able to propose to him all these questions would have been tell him that since the forum you are a part of is made up of more than 25 thousand members, you got more questions than you expected and that he don't really need to answer all the questions, but only the ones he thought were really necessary, but this content is yours alone: so behave as you see fit.

 

[madmanjock]

Wait… so no chapter 5?

 

[Claudia Schiffer]

My excuse for be able to propose to him all these questions would have been tell him that since the forum you are a part of is made up of more than 25 thousand members, you got more questions than you expected and that he don't really need to answer all the requests, but only the ones he thought were really necessary, but this content is yours alone: so behave as you see fit.

but...they were all from you

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Fuck off autismo, there's no scenario in which your script that treats Michael Beard as if he was all of SNK (and a bit of a 90s weeb in japan) is not retarded, just take the L and move on.

Move thread to Best Of after interview with sane questions gets posted.

 

[Dr Shroom]

The captain of this boat is you Fygee: the mine was just a personal proposal, which I decided to make public only after asking your permission through our private messages, however, if you are not satisfied with my final result, you are completely free to modify it, shorten it or even delete it altogether.

My excuse for be able to propose to him all these questions would have been tell him that since the forum you are a part of is made up of more than 25 thousand members, you got more questions than you expected and that he don't really need to answer all the requests, but only the ones he thought were really necessary, but this content is yours alone: so behave as you see fit.

>personal proposal
>writes the autistic nerd version of the epic of gilgamesh.

That you even thought it would be a good idea to ask that poor man all these inane questions says a lot about you. Some shit about car license plates, are you for real? How is he supposed to know?

 

[ForeverSublime]

Hi future Mr. Beard reading this thread.

 

[NeoCverA]

So anything ever come out of all this? Or did you scare him away. I was looking forward to hearing from him and his story.

 

[SignOfGoob]

So anything ever come out of all this? Or did you scare him away. I was looking forward to hearing from him and his story.

Well, give him a month or two. You saw how much paperwork he was given.

 

[doaal]

Mr. Beard now knows one thing. Someone is a really, really big fan of those thirty or so lines he read off a teleprompter thirty years ago.

 

[sylvie]

@Mr. Karate II doesnt even post anymore but changes his stupid avatar like 8676 times per day lol What a pathetic existence

 

[Claudia Schiffer]

the forums have been very hostile and upsetting as of late. i thought i'd bump 2021's thread of the year for some feel goods.

 

[LoneSage]

God bless Fygee
God bless Mr. Karate II
But most of all, God bless Michael Beard for helping bring us together.

 

[Fygee]

I suppose I should reconnect with him. The tail end of 2021 was basically one tragedy after another in my personal life, and I just didn't have the time or brain space to even think about it. Don't particularly now either to be honest.

I'm open to toss the reigns over to someone (Neo Alec for example) who is a proven Neo-Geo expert who won't subject Mr. Beard to something resembling an autistic CIA interrogation.

If not, then we'll always have this thread to read and laugh at.

 

[sirlynxalot]

I love this thread, I rarely laugh out loud in real life while reading threads, but this one made me do that. The visual of someone staying up late at night carefully preparing these questions, as well as the visual of some average joe who'se probably not that passionate about the neogeo or his minor role in the games getting handed these questions are great.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Aside from geladobom who probably wishes he was him, can you imagine being Mr. Karate?

Just do a "expat reacts to neo-geo.com autism" video with Beardman. That would be enough

 

[Fygee]

Checking Mr. Karate II's profile, he hasn't posted here since we crushed his dreams.

 

[Neo Alec]

I suppose I should reconnect with him. The tail end of 2021 was basically one tragedy after another in my personal life, and I just didn't have the time or brain space to even think about it. Don't particularly now either to be honest.

I'm open to toss the reigns over to someone (Neo Alec for example) who is a proven Neo-Geo expert who won't subject Mr. Beard to something resembling an autistic CIA interrogation.

If not, then we'll always have this thread to read and laugh at.

I'm sorry to hear things are tough. I appreciate the vote of confidence! However, surely there is someone better to take up that torch. Maybe I could help in some way?

You announced this project, and I really hope you see it through. Out of curiosity, why can't you just send him the questions? Is the list not ready?

 

[Fygee]

List isn't ready. I need to sit down and revisit it. I have some time off coming up in the somewhat near future, so I'll set aside some time to do so.

Won't say no to help. Perhaps once I get it squared away I can bounce it off of you to see if you have any suggestions for things to add/remove.

 

[SignOfGoob]

They say American Pie was originally an absolutely interminable 12” single before Don whittled it down to a merely torturous double sided 7”. Maybe it’s a great interview that just needs some editing.

 

[Neo Alec]

List isn't ready. I need to sit down and revisit it. I have some time off coming up in the somewhat near future, so I'll set aside some time to do so.

Won't say no to help. Perhaps once I get it squared away I can bounce it off of you to see if you have any suggestions for things to add/remove.

Perfect. Please share when ready. I hope this still happens.

 

[Claudia Schiffer]

a blast from the past. did this interview happen? could we interview @Mr. Karate II as a follow-up?

 

[Fygee]

a blast from the past. did this interview happen? could we interview @Mr. Karate II as a follow-up?

I reached out to him a while back with some questions, but his recollection about SNK was really fuzzy.

He only remembers putting in two days work there to record all of his lines. Either he doesn't remember revisits, or SNK already had whatever they wanted him to say for games scripted out ahead of time. Likely the former as it wouldn't make sense to have dialogue for both Fatal Fury and Fatal Fury 2 ready to record on the same day. He wasn't aware that nerds like us still follow the Neo-Geo scene and were aware of his work so long ago.

Outside of SNK, he did a commercial for one of those classic rock compilations way back in 1986/1987 that got a lot of play on MTV. It's on Youtube in ultra-potato quality. He's the hippie dude.

After SNK, he did some voicework here and there, and had a long-term gig playing Doc Brown for the Back to the Future feature at the Japanese Universal Studios in Isaka. Got to ride a fully kitted out prop Delorean on the regular, though it only ran with a clutch and no gas. Unfortunately, a few years ago it was replaced with a Minions theme ride and had to retire as Doc Brown.



He also did teaching for a long while.

He's now 72 and spends his free time performing in various music clubs and enjoying the local music scene in Kobe.

So yeah, bummer that he doesn't have any information about SNK that we didn't already know. It was just a gig, nothing special, but he thinks it's neat that 30 years on we're still hearing his voice in games.

 

[SignOfGoob]

I’ll never forget that Freedom rock ad.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

so we will never know if he ever saw Mr. Tomiyama's Mercedes Benz S600 W140 V12 with 'NEOGEO1' written on the license plate?